No Going Cold Turkey

[Age gap / Reunion after years apart / Bittersweet tension / Mutual salvation]

[Third-person narration]

When I stood on the rooftop and called Yao Zhan, my fingers were shaking so badly I could barely dial the number.

I'd hated him for fifteen years, yet when I was at the end of my rope, I still went to him.

Yao Zhan was the secret I'd kept in my heart as a young girl, and also the "enemy" who had driven my whole family out of Liuyun Alley.

He once told me he owed me a favor and that I could come to him if I ever needed help.

I had no hope. I was just clutching my last lifeline and betting on the tiniest possibility.

The next day, Yao Zhan really came. He showed up at my rental apartment in a wheelchair.

The workers' compensation claim, the funding shortfall, every mess that had been weighing on me until I could barely breathe: he sorted them all out in half a day.

At the end, he fixed his gaze on me. "Come back to Jiangcheng with me."

I hardened my heart and refused. "Mr. Yao, we're even now."

I thought our paths would never cross again, but by a twist of fate, I returned to Jiangcheng and to Yao Zhan's territory.

He sheltered me beneath his wing, quietly protecting me whenever I felt helpless, just as he had when we were children, indulging me and treating me as his favorite.

Dependence grew like weeds, silently and wildly, until the truth about what happened more than a decade ago came to light.

It turned out I'd been hating the wrong person all along.

I fled back to the countryside, thinking I could escape everything, but Yao Zhan still came after me.

He looked at me, his voice hoarse beyond recognition. "You think a 'thank you for looking after me' is enough to get rid of me?"

I softened my voice, trying to say goodbye with dignity. "Brother Yao Zhan, I've grown up. I'm not that timid little girl anymore. Let the past stay in the past."

His eyes darkened. His tone gave nothing away. "You've grown up, you've made something of yourself, so now you can talk to me like this?"

His gaze pressed down on me until I could hardly breathe. The air around us seemed to freeze.

He chuckled, but there was no smile in his eyes. "Too bad I'm the vindictive type. Especially when it comes to people like you, who said you'd stay with me for life, then turned around and tried to take it back."

Later, every misunderstanding and every secret was laid bare in the sunlight.

He reached out and held me tight, squeezing as if he wanted to press me into his very bones. His voice was hoarse and trembling:

"I knew you couldn't bear to leave me."

"Niannian, don't leave me. If you'll let me, I'll protect you for the rest of your life."

[Clear-headed, resilient heroine vs. obsessive, disabled powerful man]

Coming next: Embarrassed by Flowery Language. Please add it to your favorites!

[He blocked you because he secretly loved you + embarrassed by flowery language + once-popular web novelist heroine vs. self-disciplined, proper male lead who thinks she flirted with him and then dumped him]

Also known as: A Jiangsu-Zhejiang Love Story / Su Daqiang Doesn't Believe in Love

Theme: Self-redemption and mutual salvation